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Every once in a while, we need to be reminded just how wonderful it is to be alive and living in a country that offers all of us so much opportunity to make our lives good, and in a part of this great land where we aren’t overcrowded and have room to breathe.

It took me until the middle of the month to actually make a New Year’s resolution and here it is: I’m resolving to find something every single day of 2017 that is wonderful about life.

Pretty regularly I’ve reminded us how lovely it is to be spending another day in the country. Sometimes I’ve been concerned that people take it for granted that we have so many privileges and every once in awhile I grumble about the lack of a sense of personal responsibility that some folk have and how they don’t seem to make a connection between their own actions and the consequences. I guess all these varying circumstances are what constitutes life and isn’t it wonderful that we have the freedom to speak!

So I began to make a list of things I’m truly grateful for and occurrences that are indeed wonderful:

It’s wonderful that we have electricity to enhance life. Thank you Mr. Edison.

Monday was Martin Luther King Day and I heard a speech by Representative Lewis, speaking to young men receiving scholarships for college. It’s wonderful that there are leaders who are unafraid to speak out for truth.

Birthdays are wonderful, even without a cake. It was Jess’s birthday and I realized how altered my life would have been if she hadn’t been born as my sister.

Clean sheets, in fact any kind of clean laundry is wonderful. In the winter it is warm as it comes out of the drier for folding and in the summer it smells fresh as it comes off the clothesline.

This brings me to clotheslines. They are wonderful. I love the look of them and the sound of them and the feel of them when they are strong and straight-wired.

The feel of a cool, wet, dogs nose on my hand is wonderful.

Licorice, especially the old fashioned kind. My daughter gave me some salty licorice at Christmas because she knew that I used to love it; but in these days of lower salt intake that licorice made me choke. It was still wonderful to receive.

Running water is wonderful. Clean water is wonderful. Hot water is wonderful. In the Ramona House we had to leave the water dripping at night when the weather dipped down toward zero and it’s also wonderful that our water pipes didn’t freeze during this last cold spell.

Voting is wonderful! Even the fact that we have elections is a wonderful thing because there are many places all over the world where one voice cannot be heard and one vote does not matter.

I won’t go so far as to say that our about-to-be-inaugurated President is wonderful but I am grateful for what he has already done in my life. I’ve learned some things since his election. I’ve been reminded how very precious a democratic country is and how very fragile that democracy is.

All my life, I’ve taken it for granted. It was a given. I got used to it and was only reminded how great a country I live in when I was traveling somewhere else in the world. And now I am reminded that this country with its freedoms is a legacy handed down from my grandparents and their parents who came to join and work and live in the United States of America.

The last item on my list? America is wonderful! Let’s do our part in preserving this lovely place so we can spend another day in the country.